By the Beach
by heaven-monument
Summary: Kairi left her heart by the beach when she stepped into that portal at Destiny Islands. Sora shows her it's right where she left it. Sora/Kairi. WAFF, cliche alert. Oneshot. For GraysFairyTail. Concrit appreciated.


**BY THE BEACH**

_A fanfiction by Heaven-Monument_

28/12/08

**Disclaimer**: I, Heaven-Monument, hereby disclaim rights to all Kingdom Hearts-related intellectual property found within to Disney and Square Enix. The name "Akika" is mine, as is "Princess Blade". Please don't sue, my job doesn't pay as well as I'd like. _

**Pairing**: Sora/Kairi  
**Rating**: K+  
**Prompt**: "I left my heart by the beach."  
**Genre**: Romance/HurtComfort

For GraysFairyTail (formerly xO-Dark-Cloud-Ox).

AN: Hey guys, I'm BACK! HM is ready for action with a whole load of new ideas, including… *drum roll* gratuitous smut, coming this summer! (That'll be winter for you Northern Hemisphere folks.) I also plan to get a Livejournal, so don't touch that dial!

Anyway, so a friend (That'd be GFT above) challenged me to write a WAFF-y SoKai. Bear in mind this is my first KH fic, my first romance, and my first WAFF. Pleas leave concrit as you walk out the door, or donate money to the "Feed-HM-so-he-can-write-smut-Foundation".

Enjoy!

* * *

_I left my heart by the beach._

Ever since Sora had returned to Destiny Islands after defeating Xemnas and ending Xehanort's existence, Kairi had become strangely distant. Sora, ever the careful, observant friend, thought nothing of it and dismissed it as a form of melancholy that he couldn't determine the origin of.

So, the magical Keyblading trio lived their life. Sora made the hard, but life-altering move to explain to his _mother_, Akika, where he had been in the last, let's see, _two years_, then getting her to meet the King. She fainted, naturally. Then, he demonstrated the usage of a Keyblade, with Riku and Kairi backing him up. But when it came time for Kairi to show off her Keyblade, the Princess Blade, she dropped it then fled the room in tears. The pink blade faded away into wisps of rose-coloured smoke.

"Sora? What's wrong with Kairi?" Akika asked gently. Sora shook his head and ran after the 16-year-old girl. Riku made to follow him, but Sora was running too fast and Riku soon lost him around a corner of a building.

_I know where she'll be._ Sora instinctively thought.

Sora skidded to a halt right outside the cave with the door. Kairi was there, like he thought, quietly sobbing, clawing at Sora's chalk drawing.

"Why would he do this? I looked for him!" She bawled, oblivious to Sora's presence casting a shadow over her.

Sora dismissed his Keyblade, currently with the Hero's Crest keychain attached to it, and walked forward. "Kairi? Kairi, what's wrong?" He kneeled down, wrapping his arms around her and holding tight. "Please... don't cry."

Kairi gratefully, and non-verbally, accepted his hug with a watery hiccup and a sniffle, then squirmed out of his grip. "Sora... how could you do this? I- I lost you." She stood up and held his shoulders, looking into his eyes.

"When I followed Pluto into the portal to get away from the man with the red spiky hair and the black coat-"

"_Axel??_" Sora spluttered, but Kairi continued,

"I was angry. At him, for hurting you, at me, for becoming angry, at whoever opened the portal, for not letting me know, and YOU, for leaving me alone!" She hit his chest, sobbing once more, and Sora recoiled. She hit _hard_.

"A Princess-" she sniffled "-shouldn't get angry. It's not the sign of a pure heart, like the other Princesses have." Kairi was referring to the pure, untainted hearts that the other six Princesses of Heart had. Anger weakened the heart's resistance to the dark, and for a Princess to get angry was a bad sign. Normally it was the beginning of severe psychological damage, but really, you couldn't blame the girl. Sora knew this.

"When I stepped into the portal- I left my heart by the beach." She whispered those last words desperately.

"I don't deserve you, Sora. I'm not a Princess of Heart any more! Just leave me, I'm no better than a Heartless!" She bolted out of the cave, as far away from Sora, from everyone, as she could.

_I'll show her that her heart is exactly where it always was. Stronger and purer than ever._

Sora smiled sadly, then gathered as much energy as he could to drive into Valor Form, which allowed Sora to jump higher and run faster than he normally could. Courtesy of a small visit from Goofy, Donald and Yen Sid, the near-omnipotent wizard crafted a device to be able to Drive even when allies - especially Donald and Goofy - were not close at hand. Right now, Donald would be wondering where his knight friend had disappeared to.

Clothes changed from black to red, Hero's Crest and Sleeping Lion in hands, Sora ran.

In a matter of minutes, he had located Kairi in the Destiny Islands library. Reverting from Valor Form and returning Goofy to wherever he was at Disney Castle, he dismissed his Keyblades and bravely approached Kairi.

"Kairi. You are a princess. Your heart is pure, purer than any other person in any world! And I-" He gulped. "Your heart belongs not just to you, but to me, Riku, your friends and your family. Kairi, I..." Sora took her hands and held them in his.

"Kairi, I love you. Our hearts belong to each other." He kissed her on the cheek, tenderly.

Kairi started, but then the tears began to recede. She wiped them away.

"But- I'm not as smart, or as beautiful, or as innocent, as the other Princesses! How could you choose me, I'm worthless and pitiful and weak and-"

Sora's lips met hers as he held her tightly.

"You left your heart by the beach? I think... you never let it go." He said, eyes glistening.

"Sora..."

"Kairi, I love _you_, and you _alone_. I know you're not perfect. But I wouldn't have it any other way."

Kairi smiled. "Same here. I've always wanted to kiss that mouth that sports your goofy grin."

_I left my heart by the beach. Maybe I needed to, because my heart feels at ease now._

* * *

Yep, it sucked, right?

Here's what I couldn't really dodge:

1. It's so damned corny! "I don't deserve you!" "Yes you do! I'm a sexin' Keyblader stud with a body to die for!" "…Ok!"  
2. Unbeta'd. My spelling and grammar are usually A-OK, though. Do tell me if anything slips up.  
3. "Princess Blade". Psh.  
4. Yep, I allowed Sora to drive alone. Hey, if he can do it in the Cerberus Cup, he can do it here.  
5. "Akika" is short for "Akikaze", which is Japanese for "autumn wind". Seeing as Tetsuya Nomura prefers protagonist names that have to do with weather or geography (Sora = Air, Riku = Land, Cloud, Squall, Tidus = Tide, Lightning, etc), I thought a nice name for Sora's mother would be "Akikaze", then "Akika" to make it more feminine.

But more fics are on the way!

Catcha later (and PLEASE REVIEW),

~HM


End file.
